A search engine is a program that returns a list of web-pages (URLs) that match some user-selected criteria. Generally, a user connects to a search engine web-page and either progressively narrows the scope of the search by selecting terms with mouse-clicks, and/or enters a search term to be matched against a database. Both of these methods are hereinafter referred to as a search request. Once a URL of interest is located the user can mouse-click on the associated hyperlink and be transferred to the actual web-page, which is typically part of a web-site.
Search engine web-sites currently include: ALTA VISTA http://www.altavista.com; EXCITE http://www.excite.com; and YAHOO http://www.yahoo.com, amongst others. These and other search engine web-sites typically act as portal sites. In the Internet, a portal is a web-site on the Internet, which the owner positions as an entrance to other web-sites on the Internet, generally through advertising or endorsement.
Presently, when a user utilises an Internet search engine the user clicks on a ‘search’ icon and is then presented with a list of categories, for example business, computers, entertainment etc. By progressively moving through these categories the user eventually receives a list indicating a hyperlink to the URL of the most popular web-sites. Alternatively, a user can enter keyword(s) into a designated text entry window. A search engine server computer then searches a database seeking to match the user entered keyword(s) with possibly relevant web-pages or web-sites. Links to the possibly relevant web-pages are presented to the user as a list of hyperlinks retrieved from the database. In either of these search methods when the user mouse-clicks on one of the presented hyperlinks the user is transferred to a web-site which the user hopes is the web-page for which he or she was searching.
Hence, the user is somewhat blindly connecting to the web-page not knowing exactly what to expect. If the web-page is actually of no use or is irrelevant, which in practice occurs frequently, the user must return to the presented list of hyperlinks and repeat this process, which often amounts to guess work by the user in selecting a hyperlink.
Furthermore, in the presented list of hyperlinks a particular web-page or web-site may be repeated several times. For example, several web-pages of a single web-site may be presented as separate hyperlinks in the presented list of search results. This is often undesirable when a user simply wishes to be presented with a list of alternate web-sites.
Most databases, indexes and directories are text driven, as mentioned above, thereby forcing organisations keen to present a profile or product image on the Internet to make use of click through or banner advertising in order to effectively reach Internet users. Given the enormous value of e-business which the computer-related and Internet areas expect to generate, this provides a need to minimise the time which a user spends accessing information (for the user's benefit), for example accessing an organisation's web-site, whilst still effectively presenting a profile or product image to the user.
When a user is presented with a list of hyperlinks the user is often uncertain as to the organisation which owns the web-page or web-site to which the hyperlink points. There is a need to provide search results in a format whereby a user can relatively easily identify distinct companies or organisations, product images, brand names and/or trade marks and the like, without having to perform additional steps and connect to additional web-pages (the organisation web-pages) from the search engine web-site, until the actual web-page of interest is located.
There is a need to allow organisations or the like to provide search engine users with images, web-site images, brand name images, product images, trade marks and/or logos and the like, directing in response to the users search request so that marketing and user identification of an organisation is more effective.
Furthermore, there is a need to provide a user with a more convenient means to be placed in contact with an organisation of relevance to their search inquiry, for example via telephone or the organisation's web-site, once the user has submitted a search request.
Additionally, online directories, such as online business directories, require a user to select the type of business and the location. After further mouse-clicks the user is typically presented with inadequate or unusable information. This often proves unsatisfactory and generally only relates to business's which have become subscribers of the online business directory in a particular geographical region. There is a need to provide a user with a full online directory which lists all available businesses, not just subscriber businesses, and which offers the user visual content for at least some of the directory entries.
In a networked data communications system, users have access to terminals which are capable of requesting and receiving information from local or remote information sources. In such a system a terminal may be any type of computer or computerised device, a personal computer (PC), a mobile or cellular phone, a mobile data terminal, a portable computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, or any other similar type of electronic device. The capability of the terminal to request and/or receive information can be provided by an application program, hardware or other such entity. A terminal may be provided with associated devices, for example an information storage device such as a hard disk drive.
In such a system an information source may be a server or any other type of terminal (for example, a PC computer) coupled to an information storage device (for example, a hard disk drive). The exchange of information (i.e., the request and/or receipt of information) between the terminal and the information source, or other terminal(s), is facilitated by a connection referred to as a communication channel. The communication channel can be physically realised via a metallic cable (for example, a telephone line), semi-conducting cable, an electromagnetic signal (for example, a radio frequency (RF) signal), an optical fibre cable, a microwave link, a satellite link or any other such medium or combination thereof connected to a network infrastructure.
The infrastructure may be a telephone switch, a base station, a bridge, a router, or any other such specialised component, which facilitates the connection between the terminal and the network. Collectively, the interconnected group of terminals, physical connections, infrastructure and information sources is referred to as a computer network or data communications network.
The computer network itself may take a variety of forms. It may be located within a local geographic area, such as an office building, and consist of only a limited number of terminals and information sources. This type of computer network is commonly referred to as a Local Area Network (LAN). On a broader scale, it may be larger and support more users over a wider geographic area, such as across a city. This type of network is commonly referred to as a Wide Area Network (WAN). On an even broader scale LAN and WAN networks may be interconnected across a country or globally. An example of a globally connected computer network is the Internet.
To a user the Internet appears to be a single unified computer network, although in reality it consists of many different types of computer platforms utilising many diverse data communications technologies. The technologies are connected together in such a manner so they appear transparent to the user. This transparency is made possible through the use of a standard communications protocol suite known as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
The Hyper-text Mark-up Language (HTML) and Hyper-text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) have developed to make the Internet or World Wide Web very accessible. The exchange of information on the Internet is further facilitated through hyper-text documents. Hyper-text documents are unique in that they use tags to define links which, when selected, fetch the related information from within the same document or from a new document altogether. The links are defined using HTML which provides a document formatting method which adapts in a consistent manner to any computer on which it is displayed. HTML tags are used to define the various components of an ASCII text file, image or sound which make up a hyper-text document, including such things as formatting and linking to other documents. HTML tags which link documents on one Internet information source to those on another (hyperlinks) do so by associating a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) with the referenced information. The ability to link Internet files of similar and/or differing formats to each other, and to link documents on other Internet sites, is a powerful feature of the Internet.
This identifies a need for an improved method of locating web-pages by utilising visual images, or placing a user in contact with an organisation, which overcomes the problems inherent in the prior art. This also identifies a need for a new computer readable medium of instructions for providing a user a with an improved method of locating web-pages by utilising visual images, or placing a user in contact with an organisation, which overcomes the problems inherent in the prior art.